Renegade
by Besarki
Summary: Adventure02TamersXOver. After finding a friend that they had believed to be dead, the adventurers group is snapped out of their happy reunion and stunned to find that he’s not in any way happy to see them, and she’s quick to follow. Ryuki.
1. Reunion

Besarki: I wonder how this is going to go…probably not well. Let's put it this way: This is my first attempt at Digimon. I saw very little of season two so my info is from research. On the other hand, I have seen every episode of season 3 so I know a lot about that.

Overall, this is a Tamers story. Adventure 02 can die. I hated that season, but I needed them in this case.

Okay, this takes place several years after the D-Reaper incident. In order to cross Digimon Tamers and Digimon Adventure 2, I had to mess with some of the details. I also threw some of the details from the games Tag Tamers, D-1 Tamers, and Brave Tamer (I'm guessing that these only came out in Japan because this is the first time I've heard of them). If I make a mistake with the original line-up (meaning the characters from season 1 and 2), let me know. I'll see if I can fix it. However, chances are that if there is a mistake with the Tamers, I did that on purpose. Last confession…I know next to nothing about Japan. I'm American and I don't know much about other countries. That's really bad, I know.

The main pairing is Ryuki. There will also be Jerato. I think that's it though. Maybe TKari (whatever that pairing is called. I'm new at this. Gimme some credit.)

I had to majorly de-age the season 1 and 2 characters. That 2027 thing? Forget it. I saw that in my research and thought "Um, yeah. That has to be overlooked." Sorry.

Ages:

Ryo: 18

Rika: 16

Henry: 16

Takato: 15

Jeri: 15

Kazu: 17 (I don't know if I'll use him though. He might not be in this.)

Kenta: 17 (Ditto)

Tai: 18

Kari: 15

Davis: 15

TK: 15

Matt: 18

Cody: 12

Ken: 15

Yolei: 17

Izzy: 16

Oi, did I forget anyone? Mimi, Sora, and Joe will most likely not be in this. If they are, I'll tell you first. For the time being, we'll say that they are on vacation in...I dunno. How about Poland? This…was hard. I had to try to properly add up ages and guess for those whose age is never mentioned. Ryo should have been 17, but I made him 18 instead because I wanted there to be a slightly larger age gap between himself and Rika. I can almost garantee that I screwed some of them up, but it really doesn't matter

Oh yes, judging by Rika's shirt (the solid heart), Runaway Locomon took place _after_ the season officially ended and they had their digimon back in the movie. Therefore (since this takes place after Runaway Locomon), the digimon will be present in this story.

(Out of breath) Anything else? Um, I certainly hope not. Well, if I forgot anything or anyone has more questions just let me know.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything related to it. However, this plot is mine. Rawr. (Too tired to make any bad jokes)

* * *

It was dark. 

The streets were quiet and roads were nearly deserted save for the few cars which glided soundlessly down the lanes.

Since the defeat of the D-Reaper, the area had been relatively…uneventful. There had been, of course, a few incidents which mainly involved rouge digimon or human criminals, but they had all been considered minor after the prior events.

For the most part, digimon were no longer feared. If they seemed friendly, they were welcomed. To Japan, a digimon with a smile was a digimon to be trusted. This was a great relief not only to the digimon but also their tamers. Takato had been thrilled to finally throw away Guilmon's box. Truthfully, some people came to the bakery solely to actually _see_ Guilmon. The Matsuki's didn't mind. The little dinosaur had caused their sales to skyrocket.

Besides Takato and Guilmon, the other tamers and their partners were beginning to adjust to their new lives as well.

Henry and Terriermon spent most of their time keeping Suzie and Lopmon out of trouble. The little girl was really rubbing off on her partner. The elder two were also working on programs to help the digimon. They had already created one that returned their partners to their respective digivices as Digitama when they were defeated in a battle. It had been installed in everyone's digivices. They were all very grateful.

Kazu and Kenta spent the majority of _their_ time playing cards or arguing over who had the better digimon. In cards, Kazu usually won. In friendly battles, Kenta _always_ won. Mega level MarineAngemon vs. Champion level Guardromon…the result was always the same.

Jeri was one of the most popular girls in school because she was dating a tamer. She still had her puppet. It was her trademark. She never left home without it.

Unfortunately, not everyone returned to a semi-normal life. The two remaining tamers vanished. Ryo disappeared first. He and Cyberdramon left one night and never returned. The police looked everywhere for him, but their search ended up being fruitless. He was assumed dead.

Rika's disappearance was even worse though. Her mother had made an agreement with her to fully accept Renamon as a member of the family if she at least _tried_ to model. Reluctantly, she agreed, only to be kidnapped. She came back on her own a week later, but there was obviously something different about her. Rumiko bombarded her with questions to in an attempt to find out why, but all of her daughter's answers were completely useless.

For the following two months, Rika'a behavior became more and more mysterious. She left every night and didn't return until daybreak which led her to be beyond exhausted. She was also returning home with more and more bruises. It eventually came to a point where it became so strange that the police began to monitor her. They had no idea that they were acting just as she had hoped.

As the second month neared its end, she began acting extremely bizarre. She was always in a hurry and she started blankly walking around in alleyways. They had honestly considered locking her in an asylum until her motives suddenly became clear.

After tracking her for about a month and a half, the police were awestruck when they realized that she had purposely been leading them around. By randomly starting to act very strangely, she knew that they'd follow her, and were they ever glad they did.

After their persistent pursuit of the teen, they had finally realized that all along she had been leading them little by little to one of the most dangerous gang of bandits in all of Japan. It was now that they understood her actions.

Unfortunately, despite their efforts, they were only able to catch two of the nine bandits. They had her as well, but her involvement had been justified. She was only a part of the group because if she had declined, they would have killed her and her family. Because of this they excused her, but, regrettably, her gang didn't. Her betrayal hadn't gone over well with them. In fact, they were so enraged that they dropped all their other priorities and put their full attention on killing her.

She disappeared before they could.

Most went on with their lives normally. As they had done with the digimon, they moved on. Because of this, no one paid much heed when digital fields appeared, especially when they couldn't see them.

---

In an area just around the middle of the park, a tiny cloud hovered slightly above the pathway. It swished around for a moment before expanding then dropping a large group of teens and their digimon partners on to the dirt path.

"Ow!" One of them yelled, clutching his head. "That HURT!" He was a teenager with dark brown hair and goggles.

A little blue digimon with a V on it's forehead sat up as well, mimicking his partner's actions.

Another teen, this one with brown hair that was slightly less spikey staggered to his feet.

"Ugh, where are we?" He asked, glancing around. The area was foreign to him even though they were obviously still in Japan.

The large group of eighteen slowly pushed themselves to their feet and gazed around, taking in their surroundings. By the looks of things, they were in some kind park. Evidence of this was a playground and many trees and benches.

"I'm sure there's someone we could ask." Suggested a girl wearing a mostly pink outfit. Beside her, a small white cat was looking around the park for any sign of human or digimon life. "There has to be at least one person here."

"Maybe we should keep walking." Her loyal cat-like digimon put forward. It seemed like a reasonable idea.

"Or flying!" Said another digimon, this one an orange and cream colored creature, as it leapt into the air.

"Patamon! Get down here!" A blonde boy, predictably the digimon's partner, ordered, "We don't know whether or not digimon are welcomed around here!"

The orange digimon blinked as it landed on a high branch of the tree beside them.

"Why wouldn't they be?" Patamon asked, staring down at his friend, "They're welcomed in your city."

"But this isn't our city!" He reasoned, "The people here are different. Maybe they don't like digimon."

"TK's right, Patamon." said the girl from earlier, backing her friend.

Patamon clearly wasn't convinced. People all over the world already knew about the digimon. What reason would they have to fear or dislike them?

"Patamon, come down before I _make_ you!" Said the cat.

"What are going to do? Throw something at me?" He teased. He was good friends with this cat digimon so he wasn't afraid to push a few buttons. Unfortunately for him, his "good friend" took his suggestion to heart.

As the cat began to draw her paw back in preparation for an attack, it was only her partner who was able to grab and restrain her before she loosed her signature Lightning Paw attack.

"Gatomon!" She scolded against her digimon's struggles.

Away from the arguing four, another teen, older than all but three of them, turned his head towards the lake. He jumped slightly when he noticed the two shadows leaning against the railing.

"Guys look." He said with a somewhat soft voice.

"What is it Matt?" The small wolf beside him asked.

"Over there." He nodded towards the fence, directing the digimon's attention towards the fence and the two strangers.

"Oh! Do you think they're people?"

"I don't know, Gabumon. Maybe."

"We should go and see!" Gabumon eagerly suggested, "Maybe they can help us!"

"I don't know." He contemplated.

"Oh come on Matt. What have we got to lose?" At the digimon's question, Matt glanced down and made a semi-annoyed face.

"What?"

After he finished his staring contast, Matt returned to his normal posture and noted that everyone was staring at him, eager to hear about his findings.

"Well?" The elder of the two brunette boys asked.

"Over there, by the lake." As he finished, he turned towards the lake, as did everyone else.

"PEOPLE!" The blue digimon yelled out in excitement.

"Veemon! Ssh! They might digimon haters." said his partner.

"You pick now of all times to actually use your brain for once?" asked the girl with an odd looking hat.

"Maybe they are friendly." said the elder brunette, Tai.

"We might as well go ask." Gatomon's partner suggested.

Gatomon nodded in agreement.

Carefully, they edged forward, slowly closing in on the two. After about twenty seconds, they were close enough to clearly see both of them.

As said before, there were two: one of them male (clearly the elder of the duo) and the other female. They were both seated: the elder leaning against the fence and doing apparently nothing and the junior seated to the side leaning against the elder rather than the fence itself. She seemed to be sifting through a deck of cards.

The girl had long red hair which she wore down. She also wore loose blue pants (not jeans) and a long-sleeved top. She was a teenager, probably about sixteen years old. Of the two, she seemed quite a bit more content.

The boy had brown and wore a much more complex outfit. It was a mixture of quite a few colors though mostly brown. His blue eyes seemed slightly colder than hers for some reason as he stared at the ground. However, his face proved to be much more familiar than hers.

"Ryo?!" Yelled the group's blue-haired boy, slightly startled and very ashamed that he had just suddenly remembered his name and his existance.

"It...it's you, b-but we thought you were dead." Tai remarked, awe-struck. Without much warning, a big, warm smile began to form across his face.

At the sound of his name, Ryo glanced up at the group. His expression turned angry.

"Friends, fans, or enemies?" Asked the red-head leaning against him, her full attention still resting on her green-backed cards.

"I'm not sure," He growled, "but I'm leaning towards foes." They all gasped at his reply and Tai's happy smile faded completely.

At his answer, the red-haired girl turned her head slightly to the side, facing the strangers, yet looking at Ryo.

"That wasn't one of the choices." She teased, revealing an apparent sense of humor.

"It's a synonym."

"I know." She chuckled to herself, "Relax Ryo. You're way too uptight."

Veemon apparently didn't take lightly to being identified as an enemy. He had absolutely no idea who this Ryo kid was, but the others apparently did and it was his job to stick up for them!

"What? What do you mean foe? They helped you, remember?" When Ryo just stared at him rather than answering, the little digimon grew tired of waiting and sprinted off toward them, springing up and readying an attack that he hoped would make them talk, even though they didn't seem even the least bit fazed by his attempt. "Vee--" Unfortunately for him, he couldn't even launch his attack before something caught him in the air and thrust him at the ground. Upon impact, Veemon cried out and glanced up at his attacker only to find that it had in fact been another digimon, this one in the form of a tall, yellow fox. He could only gawk helplessly as the fox kept him pinned to the ground by pressing her white foot against his chest.

"That hurt." The girl beside Ryo chuckled as she returned to sifting through her cards. Predictably, the yellow fox was her digimon partner. It was too feminine to be Ryo's and they doubted that a wild digimon would just so happen to be passing by at that very moment and decided to help them.

The tall digimon reached down and picked Veemon up by the back of his neck with her paw. Holding the struggling digimon in front of her, she smirked, "Doesn't this look familiar?"

"Renamon, put him down. He's not worth the effort." Her tamer ordered softly. She still wasn't looking at them.

"As you wish, Ruki." With a casual flick of her wrist, Renamon sent Veemon flying into Davis, knocking them both over.

"What do you want?" Ryo demanded, rising and in turn causing Ruki to nearly topple over.

"Good to see you too." Tai growled.

Ignoring Tai's comment completely, Ryo took the initiative to question them further.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He narrowed his eyes.

As everyone else gawked at Ryo, Ruki finally took the time to glance over at the large group. With every passing second they began to look more and more familiar to her, but she just couldn't put her finger on it. She knew them from somewhere, or maybe it was sometime. Perhaps she had seen them? A long time ago, maybe.

She pondered for a little time longer until realization finally struck her.

"Hey, I know you!" She said with unusual excitement in her voice as she pointed at them, "You were on the digimon TV show! How could I have forgotten?"

"Haha! I knew I'd be on TV one day!" Davis suddenly cheered, rising a bit more quickly than he should have. The result was a dizzying sensation which caused him to collapse again.

"Davish?" Veemon asked, glancing down at his partner to see if he was okay even though the little digimon's tone didn't have much concern in it.

"What do you mean by 'TV show'?" Matt asked skeptically.

"Oh, right. You wouldn't know about it." said Ruki, "Sorry, I was getting ahead of myself. Anyway, the Digimon Adventure series only recently went off the air. For a long time, everybody would rush in front of their television set as soon as they heard the Digimon Theme music start. We always looked forward to seeing the digidestined and their digimon partners." Her next comment was more of a confession than anything, "For a while, Digimon was all I ever thought about. More the cards than the TV show, but still...I didn't really have any friends back then. No one liked me because I was so obsessed with being the best opposed to actually having a good time playing the game. That was my own fault, but...well you know." Clearing her throat, she resumed, "Sorry, I got sidetracked. Anyway, the Digimon Adventure show was probably the most popular show in all of Japan. I heard that it was pretty popular in other countries too. All of you," She gestured toward them, "were the main characters. And I can name every single one of you." She finished with a small, yet devious grin. Ruki glanced over at Yolei. "Oh, and by the way, nice hat."

The older girl fumed. Why did everyone feel the need to make fun of her hat?

"Ah, good times, but I digress." The red-head glanced over at Ryo, "So, you really don't like these guys?"

"Not at all." He answered through gritted teeth.

With that, Ruki shrugged. She required no explaination. To her, Ryo's word was law.

"Well, okay then. I'll get rid of them." She smirked as Renamon landed in front of her.

"What?!" Davis yelled in shock, "I thought you were going help!"

"I am," She replied simply, "just not you."

With a great leap, Renamon jumped high into the air.

"Diamond Storm!" As she spoke, a large amount of crystal shards materialized around her then suddenly rushed toward the large group.

"Nova Blast!" A giant striped, orange dinosaur roared as he spit a gigantic fireball at the shards, incinerating every last one. Agumon had digivolved into Greymon without anyone noticing.

Taking advantage of the temporary confusion, Greymon dashed toward Renamon, preparing to launch another attack and snatch victory from the claws of defeat. Unfortunately for him, his attack was cut short by a pair of sharp, razor-like claws. His attacker threw him into a tree with no trouble at all. Whatever this digimon was, it was a force to be reckoned with.

"What is that?!" TK shouted in horror as his eyes locked on to the great armored dragon.

"That," Tai answered swiftly, "would be our cue to get the heck out of here!" With strength like that, Tai knew that fighting these two on unfamiliar ground was suicide. His newly aquired wisdom took him and the almost all of the other digidestined as far away as possible.

That left only Ken. He hadn't been able to run like the others. He just couldn't understand. Ryo had assisted wormon in nursing him back to health when he had been injured. How could he possibly betray them like this after all that had happened. Ken couldn't help but wonder if Ruki had anything to do with it.

"Well, are you going to run or just stand there and let Cyberdramon rip you to shreads?" Ruki asked curiously. However, it wasn't her threat, but in fact Ryo's unforgiving eyes which led him to finally flee.

As he ran, he could think of only one thing: Ally or not, he was still breathing. Ryo was still alive.

* * *

Besarki: I know, you're all probably like "What the hell? Why is Ruki being nice and Ryo being an ass?". Well, that will probably be revealed next chapter. Ryo's outfit is exactly the same as his debut Tamers get-up. Obviously, it has to be a little bigger because of the passage of three years. I guess there could be minor modifications. Use your imagination. Sorry about my intro. I'm not normally this serious. Yeah, so I apologize for butchering some of the details. I needed to in order to write this. Don't be mad! I know that there probably isn't a lake, but just go with it. 

Lastly, I'm not going to continue this if no one likes it. I have Final Fantasy stories that I need to work on as well. If no one likes this idea, then I won't waste my time updating it. If I can get at least one review, I will update the story, but not until then. Ugh, now I have to go work on The Broken Road. Oh well, if anyone does like this, let me know ASAP! Review!

Disclaimer for entire story: I do not own Digimon and I never will.


	2. The Other Side of the Story

Besarki:...Wow. I've never gotten three reviews for the very first chapter before, and so quickly at that. Well, I think an update is in order! Unfortunately, the people reading Return to the Sands are going to be quite annoyed with me for updating this twice before I update RTTS. Aye, oh well. Oh, here's the heads up: I _did_ decide to change her name to Ruki. This is because I decided to use it as a plot point. You'll find out what that plot point is later.

I haven't been replying to reviews as much lately, but I figured that I might as well this time.

**Lord Pata:** :) I'll make sure to put in more Gatomon vs. Patamon scenes.

**su-pa kawaii:** Me too! Well, for the most part. I've seen a few that were so OOC without justified reasons. On the flip side, I've seen some that are awesome! YAY FOR RYUKI!

**KoumiLoccness:** XD I told you that I'd get them wrong. If you would like me to correct them, I'll need help. In other words, send me a list of what you think the adventure gang's ages _should _be. Oh, and send them in English. I don't know their Japanese names. That goes for anyone who feels like fixing their ages up. Remember, only the Adventure people, not the Tamers. By the way, my penname, Besarki, is named after my _Charizard_. If you didn't get the hint, I'm saying that I know a ton more about Pokemon than Digimon. The only Japanese Digimon names I know are Ruki, Ryou, Taichi, Yamato, and Jenrya. Yeah, so Digimon's new to me. In Pokemon, however, I am god. You've gotta see my line-up:

Besarki (My wicked awesome Charizard. He definitely makes my top three.)

Lunara (My defensive Umbreon. She's also one of my favorites.)

Abaddon (My well-balanced Dragonite. She's my other favorite.)

Storme (My combo-packed Luxray. I've had him since the day I got the game.)

Hurricate (My speedy Floatzel. She's my surf Pokemon so she never leaves my party.)

Luca (My powerhouse Lucario. His attack power exceeds everyone else's by quite a bit. Plus, he knows Swords Dance, which powers him up even more!)

Yup, that's my team. They're all in their 70's, but I'm working on raising them to be even stronger. My cousin is a freaking maniac and he raised his entire team to be level 100 on his ruby game. He doesn't have Diamond or Pearl yet, but once he does and he beats the elite four, he can import his entire Ruby team. Yikes! Luckily, I'm 16 and he's like 11 or 12 (I forget exactly XD ) so I know more combos than him. For example: I know that using defense curl before rollout amplifies rollout's power by a lot! I also know that an amazing electric type combo is using Rain Dance, then Charge, and then finishing it off with Thunder. Rain Dance makes Thunder hit with 100 percent accuracy and Charge powers it up first. Pretty good combo, huh? Of course my Luxray knows it!

Well, you're probably all thinking "WTF? Why the hell is she ranting about Pokemon?! This is Digimon dammit!" Well, I may prefer the Pokemon games, but Digimon Tamers is a much cooler show than the season of Pokemon (I forget which it was! I didn't really follow the show.) that was airing at the same time. Plus, there's no Ryuki in Pokemon!

Well, enough of that. Let's get on with the chapter shall we? Oh, wait, one last note: because Ruki knew the names of the adventure group, I will now refer to them by their names rather than just their age or hair color.

* * *

Davis fumed as he walked down the path. It had been several hours since their encounter with Ryo and Ruki. He didn't really know either of them, but being labeled as an enemy by another human who apparently knew them at one time or another just drove him to the edge.

However, he was actually, to a certain extent, _behaving_ for once, probably because Kari was standing right next to him. He didn't seem to notice the fact that she was too into her conversation with TK to even acknowledge his presence, though.

"There has to be some reason why he sees us as enemies." TK pondered aloud. He had met Ryo before, but it had been a long time ago. He just couldn't remember properly.

"I don't know." Kari sighed, "The last time we saw him, he seemed so cheerful. There has to be something we're forgetting that caused him to act this way."

"I think it's that Ruki girl." Davis suggested, crossing his arms as he stormed down the dirt road.

"Maybe," said Tai, "maybe not. We did trick him remember?"

Cody glanced up at the group's first unofficial leader.

"You tricked him? How?" He was genuinely curious.

Tai seemed quite bothered by the subject, apparent by his troubled sigh. His sudden stop led everyone else to completely halt as well, as they felt an explanation coming on.

"A while ago, there was this one tournament. Myself, as well as quite a few of the other older kids participated in it, as did Ryo. It was a tournament made to determine whom the strongest tamer was and who it would be who had to tame Millenniumon, only it was fixed. Ryo would have won no matter what. We felt guilty about it, but it was something that had to be done. He was Millenniumon's tamer, after all. I can't believe he's still bitter over it. It's been so long." He confessed.

Unbeknownst to the others who were intently listening to Tai's story, Izzy, who had also participated in the tournament and therefore knew the story already, sat against the trunk of one of the nearby trees, typing away on his computer. He was obviously researching something or someone for that matter.

"But why did you think he was dead?" Kari asked, her mind still blurry.

"Because he disappeared with Millenniumon shortly after the tournament." It was Ken who answered. Everyone's attention suddenly shifted to the former Digimon Emperor.

"What's up with you two?" Yolei asked him, "Do you know him from somewhere other than that tournament thing?"

Ken nodded.

"When I was lost in the Digital World, I met him and later pushed him out of the way when a dark spore was headed towards him. He nursed me back to health. I can't believe that he would turn on us so suddenly."

Davis threw his head to the side defiantly.

"I still think it's Ruki."

"Davis might actually be right for once." Izzy suddenly spoke up earning a loud 'WHAT?!' from everyone else, including Davis and Veemon. The young genius nodded. "While Tai was filling you all in on Ryo, _I_ was doing some research on Ruki." He gestured for everyone to stand behind him and look at the computer screen, which everyone did. The page itself was set up beautifully. There was a nice mixture of text accompanied by a series of pictures on the sides. "By the looks of it, Ruki's a runaway. According to this profile I found on the Internet, Ruki Makino is actually just an alias. Her real name is Rika Nonaka." Suddenly, everyone was interested. "It says here that she disappeared after she exposed a group of highly dangerous bandits that were causing issues around the city. She was one of them. Apparently, she had been slowly giving the police a series of encrypted clues. It was working great for a while, but after about two months, one of the bandits "Raptor" started making highly suggestive acts toward her. She got scared and started getting reckless. Her plan to expose the group worked, but at her own expense. The gang found out that she was behind it."

"Why was she even a part of it to begin with?" Davis asked, skeptically and most unsympathetically.

"Hold on, I'm getting to that." Izzy said irritably then continued after he cleared his throat, "As I was saying, the bandits found out about her betrayal and, the seven that escaped the police, decided that it would be in their best interest to take her out so that she couldn't leak any more details about them. This next part will make you sick: the leader of the group is Ruki's father."

Everyone's feelings towards her suddenly shifted.

"But how does Ryo come into all of this?" TK asked.

"It doesn't say. I looked around the net for it, but all I could find was that he vanished for no apparent reason. Oh, and before you ask, he disappeared before she did." This detail confused everyone. If he vanished first, how did they end up together? "I did find one thing that may interest you," He added, "Ryo and Ruki go way back. They weren't friends at first. He beat her in a Digimon Card Tournament and, for a while, she resented him for it. During a battle with something called "The D-Reaper" the two settled their differences and teamed up to do some serious damage. It was in vain, though. Fortunately, Ryo, Ruki, and several others were able to beat it in the end. It said that they lost their Digimon partners after that, though. I wonder how they got them back?" While Izzy contemplated, everyone else stood around and wondered if maybe they had been too quick to judge.

"Do you think we should go back and apologize?" Kari asked, concerned.

"It wouldn't be a bad idea." TK agreed.

TK's partner eagerly made a 180-degree flying turn.

"Then back we go!" Patamon cheered.

Everyone was quick to agree that they owed Ryo and Ruki an apology. They'd go back, even if it meant enduring a heavy beating from Renamon and that other dragon Digimon.

---

To everyone's extreme annoyance, their two and a half hour backtrack had been in vain: Ryo and Ruki were nowhere to be found.

At first, they walked along the cement path that circled the lake, figuring that it was possible that they had merely returned to the wrong place, but it soon became apparent that they hadn't. The four had just up and left. It was a severe inconvenience to them because it meant that their misjudgment would be weighing down their consciences for a while.

With a heavy sigh, TK slouched in defeat.

"What a day, huh guys?" TK, not one to usually pity himself, was not at fault to feel the way he did. Earlier that morning, they had all gotten together for a bite to eat. Really, it was just a reason to get together and catch up on how life had been since their last adventure. Anyway, almost as soon as they finished, a gigantic Digimon popped up out of nowhere and attacked them. Unprepared for the fight at hand, they suffered an embarrassing loss. Unfortunately, their defeat led to them being thrown into another dimension where they met Ryo, Ruki, Renamon, and Mr.AngryDragonmon. After that, they got a history lesson from Izzy which led them to feel bad about what they had done and led them to decide to return to apologize only to find them gone.

Davis always seemed to relish the opportunity to make everything worse.

"All we need now is for a nasty Digimon to pop out of the lake and decide to eat us for dinner!" He groaned.

Right on cue, a massive MetalSedramon shot up from the lake with a terrible roar.

Davis's jaw dropped as TK gave him an aggravated glare.

"DAVIS!" Everyone yelled.

"What?! How was I supposed to know that saying that would make a MetalSedramon come out of the water?" He said, on the defensive.

"Because things always happen that way!" Yolei screamed.

"Aww, it's a Mega." Tai groaned, gripping his digivice, "Well, we aren't going to beat it with a bunch of Rookies." He looked over at Matt who quickly nodded.

"Right." He agreed. He held out his digivice for a moment, but then suddenly paused.

"Matt, this isn't the best time for a change of heart." Tai frowned.

"It's not that." He explained, "We just lost a battle earlier today. Agumon and Gabumon may not be recovered enough to Warp Digivolve to Mega."

Tai glanced over at Agumon, and then loosed a great sigh.

"You're right, but then what can we do? I don't know about you, but I'd really rather not end up as MetalSedramon's dinner."

"Tai!" Agumon called out, "Tai! We can still digivolve to Champion!"

"Yeah, but will Champion be enough?"

"Of course!" Said Gabumon, "There are a lot more of us than there are of him!"

"It's the only option we've got!" Matt yelled, activating his Digivice and giving Gabumon the power to digivolve to his Champion form, Garurumon.

With a swift flash of lights and beams of data, everyone digivolved to Champion with the exception of Gatomon who digivolved to Ultimate.

"You guys can do it!" Yolei yelled as the Digimon flew/ran toward their enemy. Unfortunately, she was wrong.

One by one, MetalSedramon swatted them away. This time, there was no power in numbers, a lesson they learned the hard way as they all dedigivolved.

With a reckless swish of his humongous tail, MetalSedramon smashed the side of the wall and sent Ken flying toward him.

"KEN!" Davis shouted in horror. Everyone felt their voices die in their throats.

The seemingly perfect kid closed his eyes as he spiraled towards the Mega. He didn't want to see how close he was, he didn't want to see himself die.

It was a natural reaction for him to tense up when he felt something grab him out of the air and pull him closer. It was only when he felt himself land on some kind of furry surface that he finally opened his eyes. He could honestly say that he wasn't expecting to see who was in front of him.

Who Ken had previously assumed to be Matt and Garurumon turned out to be Ruki and a gigantic Kitsune-like creature.

"I thought you were supposed to be really tough." Ruki teased as Kyubimon gracefully soared over the lake.

He was genuinely speechless. They had called them their enemies yet they came to their rescue all the same? What an odd bunch…

"Desolation Claw!" Cyberdramon roared as he sent glowing blades flying towards MetalSedramon.

From Kyubimon's back, Ken caught a glimpse of Ryo standing on the edge of the wall as he swiped a green-backed card through an odd-looking Digivice.

Suddenly, Cyberdramon's already immense attack power intensified and he began throwing blasts at his opponent in even shorter intervals. It took only seconds to transform MetalSedramon into particles, which Cyberdramon quickly absorbed.

As Kyubimon gently landed on the chilly ground, Ruki was kind enough to push Ken off her digimon's back and throw him down on to the hard concrete before the kid even recovered from the shock of nearly being eaten.

"Oops! Did I do that?" She snorted as she slid off Kyubimon's back.

The group, once again joined by Ryo and Ruki, all gathered together a slight distance away from the broken railing, which, for some reason, didn't seem to even faze Ryo or Ruki.

"What are you doing? It's dangerous out here, especially at night. You could be killed." Ryo said as he walked up to them.

"You're out here." Davis retorted. He had always thought himself to be a clever fellow. Too bad nobody else did.

"In case you haven't noticed," Ruki began, crossing her arms, "We're a little more suited for this kind of thing than you are." It was the perfect counter.

Before Davis could aggravate their saviors, Tai stepped in.

"We wanted apologize for how we treated you before." He said apologetically, "Ryo, we never meant to betray you. It was wrong it you didn't deserve it. Ruki, we're sorry that we thought badly of you. We read your profile. We didn't know how tough life was for you two."

Ryo and Ruki exchanged glances. For a moment everyone was silent. Oddly enough, it was Ruki who broke the silence, not Davis.

"I have a profile?" Ruki suddenly asked, looking quite bewildered.

"You're surprised? Remember Rumiko? You know, your mother who just so happens to be an incredibly wealthy supermodel? How could you not expect her to spend a lot of money looking for you?"

"Hey hotshot, your dad isn't exactly penniless either, you know."

"Yeah, but I'm eighteen. I could have just decided that I wanted to leave. I'm allowed. He wouldn't care, anyway."

"You're famous, Ryo. The entire world knows whenever you scrape your knee, and he would too care! You don't give him enough credit."

"You've never met him. How would you know?"

"Ugh, this isn't getting anywhere! What were we talking about before?"

"You think I remember?"

"Hmm…"

"How long do you think they're going to keep ignoring us?" Patamon whispered to Gatomon.

"How should I know?" She quietly hissed back.

"You are aware that you're allowed to talk if you would like, aren't you." Kyubimon said to the pair.

"Um…nice really big fox…" Patamon gulped.

"Ugh, you big baby. She's just a Champion." Gatomon rolled her eyes.

"And I'm just a Rookie."

"What are they talking about over there?" Ruki asked. "Kyubimon?"

"I'm not sure." She chuckled, "They won't give me a direct answer."

"Typical."

Cyberdramon growled slightly to get the group's attention.

"What is it?" Ryo asked his partner.

"I smell something." He grumbled, clenching his fists as he tensed.

"It's probably Davis." Yolei mumbled under her breath.

"It is my enemy." The dragon growled deeply.

"We have a lot of those, Cyberdramon." Ryo sighed, "Can you tell which?"

He growled for a moment longer.

"…No."

Kyubimon approached them with her tails swaying behind her.

"We'd better play it safe and head back."

Ruki looked taken aback by her partner's suggestion.

"Who are you and what have you done with Kyubimon?"

"This isn't something to be taken lightly, Ruki." The Kitsune snarled.

"There she is." Ruki muttered.

"You have far too many enemies to be carelessly wandering around. You cannot ever drop your guard."

Ryo looked from Cyberdramon, to Kyubimon, to Ruki.

"She's right." He agreed, "We should go back. It's getting late anyway."

"It's two in the morning. It got late a long time ago, you idiot."

"Do you always have to argue with me?" He sighed.

"Yes." She replied, crossing her arms and sticking her nose up.

Ryo didn't bother trying to win the argument. He'd long since learned to never argue with Ruki Makino. She would fight to the death in that category.

"Okay, fine, but it's time to head back. Ready?"

"We're going no matter what I say."

"Exactly. Come on." He started to leave with his last words spoken. He would have just walked away had someone not said something.

"Ryo!" Ken yelled, causing the elder to stop.

"What?" He asked without turning.

Ken felt his courage leave him. He couldn't speak. He'd just have to rely on one of the other's for this task.

Luckily, Tai came to bail him out.

"Um, what are we supposed to do out here? We don't have money on us and this place is completely different from our city."

Ryo sighed.

"Why can't any of you ever just say things straight out?" He groaned. Tai was cryptically asking if the four would mind sharing their home with the others.

"Oh, well can we stay at your place for tonight?"

"We've got one guest bedroom." Ruki stated dully, "Our room, a hammock for Renamon, and a cushion for Cyberdramon. Unless most of you want to sleep on the floor…"

"You sleep in the same bedroom?" Yolei asked, quite alarmed.

"We're little short on living space." She answered casually.

"Err, don't mind her!" Izzy said quickly, "I'm sure that none of us would mind the floor." He said hopefully.

"Well, it's Ryo's house. Ask him." That caught them slightly off guard.

"It's your house too."

"You built it."

"You helped."

"Not really."

"Nevermind. We don't have time to argue right now." Ryo said, ending it.

"Yeah, okay." She stretched her arms for no real reason, "Just give them the thumbs up or down and let's get out of here."

Ryo sighed.

"You can stay with is tonight, but if you tell _anyone_ about seeing us or using our house, we'll make sure to set a GigaSedramon on you next time."

"You sent that?!" Cody gawked.

"No," Kyubimon answered, "but we can lure one here from the Digital World." She glanced over her shoulder and shot them all an untrusting look.

By the looks of it, they'd have to keep an eye on Kyubimon.

* * *

Besarki: Well, originally, this chapter was better, but my computer is a piece of shit and it erased it. Needless to say, I was really pissed off. Luckily, I did push myself to finish it. It's not as good as before, but I tried. Next chapter won't be so OOC. Ryo is going to lighten up and Ruki is going to enter 'Bitch Mode'. It should be funny. We get to see Monodramon too! Review! 


	3. Ryo's Reasons

Besarki: Sorry for the wait. I've been busy with other matters.

**su-pa kawaii:** Yeah, it was really meant to be more of a character profile sort of thing. You know, just to clear some things up and tell everyone exactly _why_ Ruki hightailed it outta there. I'm going to explain Ryo's reasoning in this chapter.

**Lord Pata:** I'll tell you what, later on in the story, Renamon and Cyberdramon have to go somewhere _without_ their tamers. I was going to have two of the adventure digimon go with them. I was considering sending either Agumon and Gabumon or Gatomon and Patamon to tag along with them (despite Renamon's preference to go with only Cyberdramon since it's their tamers who--oops! I've said too much!). If you keep reviewing, I'll be sure to send Gatomon and Patamon. If you randomly decide to leave, then I'm sending Agumon and Gabumon. Ha! Blackmail! JK. Who goes lies in the reviewers' hands. If anyone else would like Gatomon and Patamon to go rather than Agumon and Gabumon (or the other way around), give me a shout!

Oh, one more thing, for those who didn't pick up on it, I left her name as "Rika" for the first part of chapter one on purpose.

* * *

Ken groggily rubbed his eyes as he gradually pushed himself up. With a tired sigh, he slowly opened is eyes, however, the unfamiliar purple face, which was only inches away from his own, turned his sigh into a frightened scream. 

The giddy dinosaur in front of him hopped around gleefully as the teen struggled to catch his breath.

"You can relax. That's only Monodramon." At the sound of a familiar voice, Ken looked up to find that it had indeed been Ryo ensuring him that the little monster, predictably a digimon by the "mon" at the end, was safe to be around. He didn't seem dangerous to begin with, but you'd scream too if you saw a purple dinosaur with its face so close to your own.

Ken blinked as he looked up at Ryo, who was also looking back at him as he sat at the kitchen table drinking, believe it or not, coffee. Ruki hadn't been kidding when she said that they were low on living space. Their house was actually more like a burrow, dug deep underground. The entrance was a door hidden by a thin layer of dirt. It could easily be unearthed, but it was impossible to see from a distance. The door was even more concealed because it was set to go under one of the cement supports of a large bridge. Whoever had designed it must have been a genius. They'd have to be to measure everything out and set enough support beams to prevent a cave-in. However, genius or not, the burrow's designer was obviously short on time. Sure, it had a family room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and the obvious hallways, but it was very cramped it seemed like more of a safe house than anything, but then again, that's what they had built it for after all.

Due to the tight space, the visiting group had to sleep wherever there was room: Yolei and Kari shared the guestroom (their digimon shared it too, of course); Tai, Matt, Izzy, and TK slept in the family room; and Davis, Cody, and Ken spent the night on the kitchen floor. Not the most comfortable place to stay, but at least they had a roof over their heads.

"Monodramon?" Ken said as he returned his eyes to the dancing dinosaur.

"Yep, that's my name!" He answered with a country folk-like accent.

"How many digimon live here?" The blue-haired boy asked.

"Two." Ryo answered, placing his mug back down on the oak table, "Renamon and Monodramon."

Ken looked back up at him.

"What about Cyberdramon? What happened to him?"

The brunette rose out of his chair and made his way over to the sink.

"He's dancing around in front of you." He answered casually as he rinsed his empty mug under the running water.

Ken turned and noticed that Monodramon was _still_ dancing.

"That little guy is Cyberdramon?!" He was clearly shocked by the revelation.

Ryo nodded.

"His Rookie and Ultimate forms are a little different, aren't they?" After drying the cup, he reached up and placed it back into one of the cupboards above the stove. "I'm sorry for how I treated you yesterday." He sighed, "Living on the streets, or rather below the streets in our case, can really change a person's attitude."

Ken sighed then turned his attention from Ryo, to the floor.

"It's because of her, isn't it?" He asked quietly.

"We look out for each other." The more experienced of the two tamers turned around and leaned against the counter, "She's saved my ass more times than I can count." He admitted.

Ken chuckled slightly.

"You never struck me as the type who swore."

Ryo shrugged.

"People change, my friend."

The two quickly turned when they heard a strange groaning noise coming from the corner of the room. They were about to jump to their feet until they noticed what exactly the source had been.

"It's only Davis." Ken sighed.

The elder shook his head.

"How can you stand being around him all the time?"

Ken smiled at his comment. It didn't take a genius to figure out that this was actually Ruki talking, not him. How strange it must have been for their personalities to rub off on each other so much.

"You two have very similar speech." He smiled, turning back to Ryo. "You must spend a lot of time together."

Ryo laughed. Ken's statement had seemed rather silly to him. How could they not be around each other a lot? They had lived together for quite a while now.

"Of course. I live with her, don't I?"

"Yeah." He chuckled.

Startling them both once again, Davis shot up and screamed.

"NO! DON'T TAKE KARI AWAY FROM ME!!"

Both Ryo and Ken had to fight the urge to pass out. How could _anyone_ _possibly_ be so _annoying_?

Blinking a few times, Davis turned his attention to the two boys.

"What?" He asked, puzzled.

With a great sigh, Ryo pushed himself away from the counter and began to head towards the archway leading out of the room.

"Do me a favor? If you see Ruki, don't bother her. She isn't a morning person." Ryo warned as he continued on.

The question that Ken had been meaning to ask suddenly popped back into his head.

"Wait!" He called out, causing Ryo to momentarily pause. "Ryo, what ever happened...to Millenniumon?"

"I repeat, he's dan--oh, sorry, now he's doing cartwheels." He chuckled then left the room.

Ken glanced over at the acrobatic digimon. _That_ was Millenniumon? That little dinosaur? How could that possibly be? Millenniumon was a highly dangerous enemy, while _Monodramon_ was a seemingly harmless pet. How it was he who became Cyberdramon was already shocking enough, but Millenniumon? It seemed quite unreal, not to mention most improbable.

"Hey Ken?" Davis spoke as if he was in a daze.

"Hmm?" The former emperor asked.

Scratching the bridge of his nose, Davis asked him a rather annoying question.

"Who's Millenniumon?"

-----------

Further down the hallway, Kari stepped out of the guest room and glanced around her. Even though it had been lit the previous night, the little bit of sunshine that was emitted from the tiny windows gave the halls a completely different appearance.

"You lost?" said a voice to the right of her.

The digidestined whirled around to find Ruki staring dully at her. By the looks of it, Ruki wasn't the best person to be talking to right now.

"Um, no, I'm okay, thanks." She stated nervously, thinking--_hoping_ that it was the best thing to say.

Ruki shrugged then brushed past her.

"Whatever." She said nonchalantly as she strode down the hallway.

-----------

Within an hour, everyone had awakened from their slightly uncomfortable night-sleep. Taking into account that their were so _many_ people in the house, Ryo felt that it might be best to move them all into the kitchen, which just so happened to be the largest room.

To get them there, Ryo asked Monodramon to run around the burrow and gather everyone up. Monodramon's technique: locate his targets then roar playfully. It wasn't a very kind technique, but it worked. A roar was a roar, and the digidestined were quick to run in the opposite direction when they heard it.

"Okie dokie, Ryo!" Monodramon saluted his tamer upon his return from his herding mission. "I brought everyone here! Just like you asked!" He boasted with a huge grin.

"Good job, boy." Ryo said, gratefully.

Yolei in particular wasn't thrilled with Monodramon's methods.

"Alright, now that we're here, WHADDAYA WANT?!" She fumed. Her outburst earned the attention of the entire room.

"We want you out of here." Ruki answered, crossing her arms impatiently. "We let you stay the night, but it's bright enough to see your way around now. You no longer need to stay and therefore no longer need to bug us. Go find someone else to mooch off of."

"Someone's bipolar." Tai whispered to Matt who was standing beside him.

"Yeah, it's like she's a whole different person." He said softly.

They had kept their voices low in an attempt to keep from being heard. It wasn't anything new. Tai and Matt often played the role of leader. Well, Tai played leader, Matt usually just acted as the severely overprotective big brother. All in all, they were good friends who frequently filled in for each other when one of the two wasn't around. Either way, though, even their quietest whispers couldn't escape the earshot of the group's _youngest_ member.

"Some people are like that." Cody said, quietly. He was wise, especially for his age, "They act differently depending on factors such as the weather or time of day. By differently, I mean completely dissimilar to their prior attitude." His astute speech earned him confused expressions from Tai and Matt. "What?" He asked them, looking quite perplexed. However, before they could answer, a smiling Monodramon came and swept Cody away from them.

"Cody's smart!" He laughed, carrying him across the room.

"Monodramon, put him down." Ryo sighed.

His immature partner gave a warm smile before uttering a simple "Okay!" then carelessly dropping the group's youngest member and running over to meet his tamer.

"Anyway," Ryo continued, "There are other tamers around here. We know most, if not all of them. I'm sure that they'll be more than happy to help you. One of them, Takato, usually hangs out around his parent's bakery. He wears goggles too. His partner, Guilmon, looks like a small red dinosaur. He's still about twice as tall as Monodramon, but this guy is short." He said gesturing to his partner, who was completely oblivious to the fact that his tamer had just called him tiny. "Anyway, Guilmon has the digital hazard symbol on his chest so he's pretty hard to miss."

"The what?" Davis gawked stupidly.

Ruki let out a sigh of disgust and rolled her eyes. With an annoyed frown, she walked over to the wall and removed a framed picture from it. Flipping it around, she held it up to the group and pointed to each tamer and digimon respectively as she spoke.

"That's Takato," She told them before moving her finger further across the photograph, "Guilmon, Henry and Terriermon, Suzie and Lopmon, Kazu and Guardromon, Kenta and MarineAngemon, and these last two are Jeri and Calumon." Finishing, she turned around and returned the photo to its prior location on the wall. "They stick out. You'll find them."

Everyone other than Ruki and Ryo turned quickly when they saw Renamon enter the room. She wore a collected expression as she held Veemon by the back of his neck in her right paw.

"I believe this is yours." She deadpanned, tossing the blue digimon at his partner.

Davis caught his little friend and gave Renamon a confused look.

"Next time I find you snooping around, I'm leaving you alone with Cyberdramon." She threatened before turning around and leaving the room.

"Um..." Ruki glanced around awkwardly, "okay bye." She said quickly then followed Renamon out.

Everyone in the room watched the two leave before turning to look at Veemon expectantly.

"Veemon, what did you do this time?" TK groaned.

"N-Nothing." He stuttered as beads of sweat rolled down his face.

"VEEMON!" Everyone other than Ryo, Veemon, and the oblivious Monodramon yelled.

"What?!" He shouted defensively.

"What did she mean by 'snooping around'" Gatomon hissed.

"I-I-I have no idea! I was just in the kitchen, getting a snack! Yeah, a snack!" He beamed at his own genius.

"_This_ is the kitchen, you idiot! WHERE WERE YOU?!" Kari's digimon growled.

"I would like to know as well." Hawkmon seconded, crossing his wings.

"Yeah! Me too!" said Yolei.

"I think we all would." Tai said for everyone.

"I-I just--I wanted to..." Finally, Veemon gave in, "I wanted to know why they're hiding down here!"

"We've already been over this." Matt reminded him, "She's here because there's a bunch of bandits out to kill her. Ryo's probably here just to keep her company."

"No! Ryo left first, remember?" Veemon retorted. His statement stopped everyone.

Ryo _had_ disappeared first, _hadn't_ he?

"Why did you leave?" Veemon uncharacteristically demanded. His curiosity was justified. He was worried about Davis and Gatomon (AN: Ick!) and the rest of his friends. What was Ryo doing out here? Was he running away from something too? Panting frantically, he tried again, "Why are you here?!" Though everyone now wanted to know, the rest of the group struggled to bite their tongues and refrain from interrogating the person who had opened up his home to them.

For a moment, there was a deafening silence. Once again, it was someone related to the tamers that broke the silence.

"Ryo, I'm bored." Monodramon complained.

"Why don't you go ask Renamon to fight you? I'm sure she'd accept." His tamer suggested.

For a few seconds, Monodramon stood there pondering and stamping his foot against the ground. After his short contemplation, his face brightened.

"Okay!" He shouted gleefully and ran down the hall that Ruki and Renamon had just departed down.

"He's funny." Armadillomon chuckled.

When the sound of Monodramon's fleeting footsteps finally faded, everyone returned their attention to Ryo.

Bravely, Tai stepped forward to ask Veemon's question with a more polite (and more cautious) tone.

"Ryo, why _did_ you leave?" He asked. "And don't say anything about Ruki because we all know that she left after you."

At this point, Ryo was wishing that he hadn't sent Monodramon away.

"I left…because a friend of mine approached me one day, crying and utterly terrified." He sighed. "_Raptor_ wasn't her only reason for leaving." Everyone in the room shivered as an eerie sensation passed over them.

Ryo scratched his head as he stared at the floor. His eyes displayed a look of extreme concentration, yet also great reluctance. Whatever it was, it was bad.

With another deep, troubled sigh, Ryo continued.

"She was in pieces. It took me a good half an hour to calm her down." With a solemn expression, he returned his eyes to the group of humans and digimon before him, "When Ruki was a bandit, she kept Renamon a secret from the others. Somehow, they were unaware that she was one of the people who had assisted in saving the world. Neither of us could believe it, but they didn't know. It played to her advantage, but it made her life hell." His eyes grew dark as he continued, "When I finally calmed her down, she admitted that she was a bandit. I didn't believe her at first, but as our conversation continued on, I realized that she had been telling the truth, but that still didn't explain why she had been crying. Of course I asked her, but the result was only more crying. I felt guilty because I found her incompetence quite annoying. It wasn't her fault. She had come to warn me about their latest scheme and I'm over here scolding myself for even considering yelling at her." Another sigh, "She risked her own life as well as the life of her mother and grandmother to come warn me, but when she finally blurted it out, I couldn't believe it." All the color drained from Ryo's face and it became obvious why this recollection had been so painful, "They wanted to kill the tamers."

* * *

Besarki: Crappy way to end the chapter, I know, but I'm exhausted and I just really wanted to get this up tonight. BESARKI NEEDS SLEEP BADLY! Well it's safe to say that this is the longest chapter that I've ever written for any fanfic. Phew, review... 


End file.
